Rahmings v. State
| Citation | 660 So.2d 1390 |
| Decision Date | 05 October 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 83845,83845 |
| Parties | 20 Fla. L. Weekly S508 Sabrina RAHMINGS, Petitioner, v. STATE of Florida, Respondent. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Florida |
Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender and Louis Campbell, Assistant Public Defender, Miami, for petitioner.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General and Paulette R. Taylor, Assistant Attorney General, Miami, for respondent.
We have for review Rahmings v. State, 636 So.2d 567 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994), based on conflict with Williams v. State, 500 So.2d 501 (Fla.1986). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, Sec. 3(b)(3), Fla. Const. We quash Rahmings.
Sabrina Rahmings knocked on the door of an acquaintance's home and allowed her two friends to gain entry to assault and rob the occupants. Following a jury trial, Rahmings was convicted of two counts of armed robbery, one count of aggravated battery, and one count of burglary. The recommended guidelines range was five and one-half to seven years imprisonment and the permitted range was four and one-half to nine years.
At the conclusion of trial, Rahmings asked to remain free pending sentencing so that she could make arrangements for the care of her three small children. The judge allowed her to remain free over the weekend, but to ensure her return on Monday he sentenced her to forty years' imprisonment which would be "mitigated" on her timely return February 2:
THE COURT: And any objections that you have to the plea, I mean the sentence which is going to be as follows. I will adjudicate her in accordance with the jury's verdict. I will sentence her now to 40 years, which is essentially life under DOC guidelines on the counts already charged. I'm not making any sentence or ruling on the counts that have been severed. I will allow her to take a furlough to get her children placed in child care and take care of whatever other necessities that she needs. She will return on Tuesday, February 2, 1993. When she surrenders on that date, I will mitigate the sentence and I will suspend entry of any sentence until she gets the PSI.
Rahmings agreed to the arrangement, and when she returned from furlough on February 2 the court vacated the forty-year sentence.
Rahmings remained in jail pending sentencing until March 25 when she again asked for and received a furlough under the same conditions as before, this time for one day. The court again issued an order sentencing her to forty years and listed the reason for departure: "Waived guidelines to get furlough--failed to turn herself in." Rahmings returned the following day and then was granted a furlough extension over the weekend.
On Monday, March 29, the day Rahmings was to surrender, she came to court but was not present in the courtroom when her case was called by a different judge:
THE COURT: Okay. And Sabrina Rahmings. She is here to surrender?
MR. KAISER (defense counsel): She is outside using the bathroom or something.
When Rahmings could not be located a short time later following a search of the restroom and that floor of the courthouse the court issued an order committing her to the Department of Corrections to begin serving the forty-year sentence:
The district court affirmed the sentence and this Court granted review based on conflict with Williams.
The defendant in Williams pled guilty to several offenses, was released on his own recognizance, and was told by the court that he would be sentenced under the guidelines if he reappeared for sentencing on a particular date. When he failed to appear on that date, the court imposed a departure sentence because: "Defendant did not appear for sentencing on July 20, 1984." This Court held the departure invalid, ruling that failure to appear (FTA) is not a valid basis for departure. We reasoned that FTA is a separate criminal offense punishable under section 843.15, Florida Statutes (1985), by up to five years' imprisonment, and that Williams had not been convicted of that offense. 1 The guidelines expressly prohibit departure based on allegations of criminal conduct without a conviction. Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.701(d)(11).
We addressed a related issue two years later in Quarterman v. State, 527 So.2d 1380 (Fla.1988). Quarterman was charged with armed robbery and entered a negotiated plea "premised on the condition that he...
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Wilson v. State, 5D99-3578.
...evidence at trial was sufficient to establish the "willfulness" of Wilson's failure to appear. § 843.15, Fla. Stat.; Rahmings v. State, 660 So.2d 1390, 1393, n. 1 (Fla.1995). The fact that he reappeared two hours after fleeing his trial scene merely shows he changed his mind. It does not ne......
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Taylor v. State, 1D99-2392.
...and did not reduce any reason to writing. Mere failure to appear is not a legitimate basis for departure. See Rahmings v. State, 660 So.2d 1390, 1392 (Fla. 1995); Bolden v. State, 691 So.2d 23, 24 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997). Failure to appear may constitute a crime in and of itself. See § 843.15(1......
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Bolden v. State
...MINER, Judge. In view of holdings by the Florida Supreme Court in Williams v. State, 500 So.2d 501 (Fla.1986), and Rahmings v. State, 660 So.2d 1390 (Fla.1995), we are obliged to reverse the four consecutive 15 year sentences imposed on appellant and remand for re-sentencing within the sent......
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MORLANNE v. State, 3D00-1370.
...imposed, which was part of the plea agreement. See Quarterman v. State, 527 So.2d 1380, 1382 (Fla.1988); see also Rahmings v. State, 660 So.2d 1390, 1392 (Fla.1995). What has complicated the picture is a clerical error which occurred after the plea was accepted on March 8, 1999. At that tim......